New Delhi [India], June 5 : AAP MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj on Monday accused the central government of covering up those guilty in the triple train accident in Odisha. Bharadwaj charged that the CBI is a central agency, hence it cannot point out the shortcomings of the central government. He pressed for an independent judicial probe into the incident.
"I believe that the investigation should be done under the sitting judge of the Supreme Court, only then the investigation can be done in a transparent manner. Agencies like CBI are organizations that work under political pressure, there should not be any expectation from them," he said.
Bharadwaj said that the 'cover-up' is completely wrong and efforts are being made to save the Railway Minister. "Earlier the government was saving Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh and now they are saving the Railway Minister," he said.
Highlighting the poor state of railways under the BJP government, Bharadwaj said that the CAG report was tabled at the Parliament on December last year where it ws mentioned that 217 major accidents took place from April 2017 to March 2022. 75 percent of these accidents were not related to train tracks, he added.
The CAG report pointed out that the tracks were not maintained properly, the amount spent on maintenance is being cut continuously and the entire amount is not being fully utilized as well, Bharadwaj pointed out.
In a sharp attack at the BJP, Bharadwaj said that the government engages in work through which accolades can be gained. If trains are colliding with each other, it means that there is something wrong with the system and not the fault of any one person, he said.
Continuing his attack against the BJP the AAP MLA said, "It has been nine years of Modi government at the center. If you do not take responsibility even now, when will you take it?"
Hitting at Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Bharadwaj said that the railway minister is solely responsible for this accident. "The minister gave a presentation of an armor device named Kavach himself, he said that trains will not collide from now on, now when trains collided resulting in a big accident they (central government) are saying that this device (Kavach) was not installed in that particular track."
The triple train crash in Odisha's Balasore has, so far, claimed 275 lives with over 1,000 people injured, the Indian Railways said.
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